Mega Man-inspired Red Ash going ahead despite struggling Kickstarter

Comcept USA, the team behind Mighty No. 9, launched a separate Kickstarter in early July for Red Ash: The Indelible Legend, a game/anime combo pack intended as a sort of spiritual successor to Mega Man Legends. It started strongly, raising well over $200,000 of its $800,000 goal in very short order, but just as quickly petered out, and with three days left it's stuck a little shy of the $500,000 mark. Today, however, the studio announced that the project "is a go for full development," and will even be ported to consoles.

How did this rapid turnaround happen? Comcept has actually been negotiating with "hardware makers and development partners" for a while now, and has settled on a deal with Fuze Entertainment, "a Chinese digital entertainment company engaged in production of console hardware as well as sales of console games."

"We can officially confirm that 'The KalKanon Incident' will be developed to completion, with the initial goals for game content (8 hours), along with ports to BOTH PlayStation 4 and Xbox One!" Comcept revealed on Kickstater. "The rights to Red Ash will be retained by comcept. We're excited to find such a great partner in Fuze who believes in our vision in its pure form. In addition, comcept will retain rights to creative discretion and decisions in game development."

Thanks to this announcement, we will be re-purposing the KS for stretch goals to make the game even better.July 30, 2015

It seems unlikely that the Kickstarter campaign will succeed, but it will continue to forge ahead, as Comcept said backers should consider their pledges "a contribution to stretch goals from here on out." It didn't reveal what those stretch goals are, however, saying only, "We're very busy with many behind-the-scenes things over here, and we apologize if you feel left in the dark." Potentially complicating the situation even further is how Comcept described Fuze's role as "join[ing] your ranks as backers," and while that could be simply a poor choice of words, it also implies that the Kickstarter is a success.

And in some ways it is. The game is being made, and going by the bulk of the comments following the announcement, that's all that most people care about. It's also possible that the Kickstarter will achieve its goal, and that the money raised will go toward stretch goals, as promised. But changing gears like this midway through a funding campaign and asking backers to keep throwing money at it while offering no indication as to what will actually be done with the cash feels a bit uncomfortable, doesn't it? The Red Ash Kickstarter runs until 2:30 pm EDT on August 3.

As lead news writer during ‘merican hours, Andy covers the day-to-day events that keep PC gaming so interesting, exciting, and occasionally maddening. He’s fond of RPGs, FPSs, dungeons, Myst, and the glorious irony of his parents buying him a TRS-80 instead of an Atari so he wouldn't end up wasting his life on videogames.